Project Ron Burgundy Brake Upgrade

Work on Project Ron Burgundy, our turbocharged '87 Mustang, is moving along nicely. With Maximum Motorsports' new K-member and suspension installed, we've laid the groundwork to efficiently put the power to the ground from our soon-to-be-installed Ford Racing crate engine with upgraded turbocharger. Once the new engine is in the car, which we're still working on as this is written, we will have the potential for 9-second passes at the dragstrip.

High trap speeds require a braking system up to the task of quickly slowing the car at the top end. Plus, our turbocharged combination, while churning out about 800 hp, will still be docile enough to commute to work in. So we need brakes that are sturdy enough for street driving, yet still lightweight enough for efficient weight transfer at the dragstrip. We ultimately decided on Wilwood's Dynalite Pro kit for both the front and rear axles.

Parts List

Description

PN

Source

Price ($)

K-member '79–'95 SBF

MMKM-1

Maximum Motorsports

649.00

Front control arms

MMFCA-20

Maximum Motorsports

449.00

Bumpsteer tie-rod kit

MMTR-1

Maximum Motorsports

139.00

Steering-rack spacers

MMST-8

Maximum Motorsports

18.95

Steering-rack bushings

MMST-6

Maximum Motorsports

49.95

Manual brake conversion

MMBAK-10

Maximum Motorsports

199.95

Steering shaft

MMST-12.1

Maximum Motorsports

239.97

Dynalite Pro front brake kit

140-11018-D

Wilwood

881.99

Dynalite Pro rear brake kit 8.8

140-7146-D

Wilwood

842.52

Front flex line kit

220-6471

Wilwood

77.72

12-inch rear flex line kit

220-9481

Wilwood

88.83

Manual master cylinder 7⁄8-inch bore

260-9439-BK

Wilwood

259.14

Proportioning valve

260-8419

Wilwood

45.30

EXP600 brake fluid

290-8478

Wilwood

118.88

31-spline five-lug axles, 8.8 Ford

A883151

Moser

260.00

1⁄2-20x3-inch wheel studs, set of 10

8010

Moser

22.50

Front Discs

2/25Here are some of the components from Wilwood’s Dynalite Pro series front disc brake kit. In addition to the rotors and calipers, it comes with new hardware, seals, and bearings.

3/25Assembling the new Wilwood brakes took a few hours to do right, following the directions closely. To start, the new aluminum hubs need their wheel studs put in, bearings backed and sealed before proceeding.

4/25Using the provided stainless Torx button head bolt, we mated the rotor adapter to the brake rotor. Be sure to use thread-locking compound on the bolts.

5/25We slid the rotor and adapter over the back of the assembled hub and bolted all three pieces together. Wilwood’s instructions are very thorough and provide all the torque specs for each of these steps.

6/25To refresh your memory, Ron was a four-cylinder car that had a V8 swap before we bought it. We later upgraded to V8 spindles required to fit the Maximum Motorsports front-end kit. Wilwood’s brake upgrade for this application requires removing the brake-caliper brackets and drilling the dust-shield bolt holes to mount its caliper adapter. If this makes you squeamish, you can swap a pair of SN95 spindles and use Wilwood’s corresponding kit, which doesn’t require any spindle modifications.

7/25Once the three dust shield holes per spindle were drilled out to 0.332 inches, they needed to be carefully tapped for 3⁄8-24 bolts. Again, this must all be done with great amount of precision. If you don’t have the tools or skills, seek the help of your local machine shop.

8/25Our Maximum Motorsports’ K-member, as with other aftermarket K-members, changes the relationship between the steering rack and the front control arm mounting points, so a bumpsteer kit is required to fix the misalignment between the steering rack and the tie-rod attachments on the steering knuckle. Maximum Motorsports’ bumpsteer kit includes rod ends that are straight, rather than tapered like stock, so the steering arms need to be drilled squarely and straight through with a 5⁄8-inch drill bit.

9/25

10/25A few amputations on the spindle are also necessary before the Wilwood caliper bracket can be installed. We used a reciprocating saw to remove the mounting points for the stock caliper, but a bandsaw or cut-off wheel would also get the job done. After all the mods, we applied a coat of our finest spray paint before torquing down the caliper bracket.

11/25

12/25Here is the spindle with the caliper brackets removed and Wilwood’s adapter bracket installed. Now Wilwood’s Dynalite forged four-piston calipers can be installed. Of course, the calipers can be ordered in black, red, or polished, depending on your taste.

13/25Typically with mixing aftermarket and production parts, a little fine-tuning is required to line things up because factory mass-production parts can vary from plant to plant and year to year. Wilwood includes 0.035-inch-thick shims to help center the caliper on the brake rotor. They normally would go between the caliper and the caliper bracket.

14/25Looking through the back of the caliper, you can usually see if the caliper assembly is biased to one side or the other in relation to the brake rotor. If the pads are touching on one side and there is a big gap on the other, shim accordingly until they are as equal as possible.

15/25Now the new brakes can be installed. We already converted the struts to coilovers using parts from MM. This must also happen when using most any aftermarket K-member since you lose the stock coil-spring pockets. We have been using the Tokico D-Spec adjustable struts and rear shocks with great results. Also through this swap, we are performing a five-lug conversion, which is both stronger and allows us to fit a wider variety of wheels to the car.

Rear Discs

16/25Out back, the axles needed to come out of the 8.8 to get the drum brake backing plates off. This requires draining the rearend, pulling the diff cover, and removing the C-clips. We already replaced the stock differential with an Eaton Detroit Truetrac and 31-spline axles from Moser, but we ordered another set of five-lug axles since we are losing the four-lug parts.

17/25Wilwood’s Dynalite rear disc brake conversion kit comes with Wilwood’s integral parking brake, which is the drum-brake-looking unit here. They mount to the housing ends using the stock hardware.

18/25Now the Moser 31-spline five-lug axles can go in. Remember to order longer studs if you are using race wheels with thick centers and want to pass a tech inspection at the track.

19/25Wilwood also has several different brake line kits to help adapt the plumbing in your car. You could run the hard line to the rear calipers if you want, but for serviceability, we decided to use flex line. The stock hard line will get cut back, re-flared, and secured to the housing.

20/25The rear calipers may need shims to center the rotor, just like the front ones did. Wilwood offers several different thicknesses if you run into a problem.

Master Cylinder

21/25Looking to reduce weight a little more, we also ordered Wilwood’s universal manual (non-power-assist) master cylinder but soon found that it doesn’t bolt into the stock booster/master location. Maximum Motorsports offers an affordable kit to adapt the new master cylinder to the firewall opening.

22/25Maximum Motorsports’ adapter kit also includes a brake pedal with adjustable pedal pad mounting positions. Manual brakes need a different pedal ratio that offers more leverage than one intended for power brakes. Note the difference between the pushrod pin location from the stock pedal (top) and Maximum Motorsports’ pedal.

23/25The stock steering column and pedal box need to come out of the car to change the stock parts. At the lower-most steering column mount, MM includes this bracket to mount the new brake light switch and also incorporates a bolt as an adjustable brake pedal stop. You can retain the use of your factory cruise control using this kit.

24/25Now Maximum Motorsports’ master cylinder adapter block can go on the car, and the pedal box and steering column can be reinstalled.

25/25Finally, Wilwood’s manual master cylinder can go on. You can run the brake lines out of either the left or right side of this master to suit your needs. As always, remember to bench bleed any new master cylinder.